That's the kind of pressure most don't face. And that's why no one on the forums or pool industry will ever be able to relate to that unless you have been there.
Given the posts of the ABP "pros" I can honestly say that the non-pool playing professionals can relate to your arguements a hell of alot better then the people who have posted can relate to reality, the world that 99.9% of the people in the world actually live in.
You call yourself a "touring" professional, no, there is no professional tour. There are regional amature tours and some independent events and there are players who travel and try to make a living playing a strictly amature game. A small few like SVB and Archer actually make reasonable money due to their accomplishments, but the bulk of the people on your list are not making a living playing pool, they are making it teaching pool or working in a pool hall or doing exhibitions. That is not a professional pool player.
Pool in North America is not a professional game, not a professional sport, it is not currently even capable of truly supporting pool players. That is why AZBilliards often gets "professionals" on this forum begging the forum members for sponserships and money to go play in major events, they are not actually making enough money to do it themselves because the sport simply does not allow it.
And now in that already crap climate of pool, where most of you cannot actually making a living just "playing professional pool" you are going to try to play hardball with one of the best paydays of the whole year and the best payday that we normally see on this continent? Do you really want to go flip burgers for a living with your high school education and resume that reads "uhh ya, I played pool from 1996-2012 when we pros then shot ourselves in the foot and destroyed the few tournaments we had that were left". The reality is that yes you get paid late by the US Open, but you get paid, and few tournaments are paying you as well.
Want to see how well you can survive without events like the US Open? Want to try to make a living with the 20 other so called "pro" pool players in America by grinding out regional events for $1000 or $1500 first place prizes? Good luck, because that is the hole you twats are digging for yourselves right now with your actions of the last week and these posts.
Trust me, I know your side of things, you are fighting like crazy to try and NOT have to go and get a real job. You want to spend your life traveling and playing pool in different cities. Jump off the plane and see the baggage guy onloading your suitcase "man, that must suck", jump in a cab to the convention center and think "gee, driving a cab for a living must suck", get to the hotel and check in thinking that peon at the front desk that checked you in has it pretty crappy, and then go and shoot pool strutting around like a true professional, only you are not playing a true professional sport, sorry to burst your bubble. You want to be a proffesional pool player? What the hell have you guys been doing for the last 20 years while your game has existed WITHOUT a professoinal tour? Forget Barry, get off your asses, pool your talents and resources into something more profitable, like setting foundations for an actual bloody tour.
Go do some actual work, get together a business plan, spend 10 hours a day on the phone talking to possible sponsers, get decked out in an actual suit and go talk to some of the execs and get shot down 99% of the time for that 1% that pays off, talk to casinos and try to work in advertising deals for the space you need, try to talk to airlines to get an official airline that gets advertising for all events and in return gives you cheap flights to the pros for traveling to the events (not your wife and kids, not a flight to go see your dad, just flights to and from the event, just you). Do some charity work, go talk to school boards about doing exhibitions in schools, try to get some interest in the younger generation because those are your future possible fans and without some interest being spurred in this game you are NEVER going to be playing a true professional game, ever. When a tournament is going to go off in a city? Go out in the streets with 10,000 flyers and put them up on walls along with the concert ads and the like, do some actual footwork and let the general public know the sport exists because I know for a fact noone ever actually does this kind of stuff, and it is needed. You guys expect that the top TV station is going to interview you and suddenly 20,000 people are lined up outside the door, give me a bloody break.
You so called pros need to do some actual work, stop whining about Barry, he is not the problem, you and the sport you play are the problem. Fix the sport and stop expecting a pot of gold to suddenly fall from the sky and reward you with all the riches that your ego makes you think you deserve. Or, if you want to remain lazy, at this point I would be just as happy to see Johnny Archer working on a construction crew, Shawn Putnam driving my cab, and Charlie Williams doing telemarketing trying to sell cable subscriptions. At this point that would simply make me laugh, and rest assured, you guys are doing your best to put yourselves there.
